Bookdeath Scheduled for March 2010

Good news–I’ve sold the sequel to Booklife, Bookdeath, to Tachyon Publications. Jacob Weisman at Tachyon wanted to make sure we had pretty much every group covered, so this volume will focus on advice that’s more or less the opposite of what’s covered in Booklife. Also, instead of having an optimistic outlook, Bookdeath will have a pessimistic outlook more in keeping with the reality of our current situation.

“I just felt like for every person out there who wants to buy a book about life-related things, there’s got to be another person who wants to buy a book about death-related things. And the book industry. Besides, if you hate Booklife, you just go out and buy Bookdeath. That’s just a win-lose-win situation, really.” That’s the way Weisman put it to me in a phone call. (Booklife is pictured below.)

Jill Roberts at Tachy is also excited, telling me, “*&$@#@!!”

Chapters will include:
– How to Disconnect from the Internet Forever Leaving a Huge Hole in the Lives of Everyone Who Never Really Cared About You
– Why Envy is a Great Thing if You Turn It Into Hatred
– The Best Way to Use Your Self-Pity as a Blanket
– How to Disembowel a Reviewer in Ten Seconds
– Five Easy Steps to a Prolonged Flame War that Destroys Your Galaxy
– The Benefits of Audience Baiting with Hair Spray and a Match
– How to Use Personal Information About Your Enemies in Your Fiction
– Why Death is Sometimes the Best Way to Avoid Being Remaindered

In related news, Jacob’s also bought two new anthologies, to be edited by Ann and me: New Weird II: Bring the Pain and Steamy Cyberpunk: Feeling Slightly Naughty.

That’s it. I’m chucking my computer out the window and never posting on another blog, ever again. Oh, in due time, the void I leave behind will instill great remorse in the denizens of the blogging community and great waves of shock throughout the publishing industry. “If Bill would only give us another chance,” they will lament bitterly. “We can never forgive ourselves for not embracing his vision!”
But it will be too late.

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About Jeff VanderMeer

Author photo by Kyle Cassidy.

Jeff VanderMeer recently served as the 2016-2017 Trias Writer-in-Residence for Hobart-William Smith College. His latest novel is Borne, out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, which Colson Whitehead called “a thorough marvel.” He is also known for his critically acclaimed NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy from FSG,which won the Shirley Jackson Award and Nebula Award. The trilogy also prompted theNew Yorkerto call the author “the weird Thoreau” and has been acquired by publishers in 35 other countries, with Paramount Pictures releasing a movie in 2018. VanderMeer’s nonfiction has appeared in theNew York Times, theGuardian, the Atlantic.com, Vulture, Esquire.com, and theLos Angeles Times. He has taught at the Yale Writers’ Conference, lectured at MIT, Brown, and the Library of Congress, and serves as the co-director of Shared Worlds, a unique teen writing camp. You can contact him at press info at vandermeercreative.com. More...